All posts by Colin

On Sunday 4th September 2016 Lea Bridge Conservation Volunteers will be doing a practical conservation task at the Waterworks Nature Reserve on Lea Bridge Road.

The work will help preserve the architectural heritage of these mid-late 18th century water filtration beds, constructed by East London Water Company. The filter beds were originally called the Essex Filter Beds as they were on the Essex side of the River Lea, the boundary with Middlesex. They now form the Waterworks Nature Reserve an enclosed nature reserve with one of the biggest bird hides in London, if not southern England. The nature reserve is dog free area, so unfortunately we cannot accommodate dogs on this month’s task.

The task will involve removing scrub encroaching on the open beds and walls. A selective bramble bash will be done to contain the bramble from taking over but allowing it to still provide shelter and forage in various areas, but taking back areas for the cowslips and wild flower meadows.

The removed vegetation will be used to form habitat piles away from the bed floors. Our previous buildings of habitat piles and hibernacula have meant this year’s survey of reptiles and amphibians at the Waterworks NR has seen a healthy increase.

Tools to be used include bow saws, loppers and slashers.

All welcome to join us, no experience required. Please wear appropriate clothing and footwear for the task and weather. We will be working in long reed/grass so closed shoes/boots and long trousers and sleeves will be best. Please bring some lunch or you can pop to the cafe, at the Waterworks Centre. We will provide the tools, gloves, training, tea, coffee and biscuits.

To join us, just turn up at 1 Connaught Close, E10 7QS, opposite Horse Riding Centre on Lea Bridge Road, from 9:45am to 10am. Volunteers will be at Connaught from 9:30am setting up the tools etc. We can provide wellingtons, if you do not have suitable footwear. The task site is a short walk from Connaught Close where indoor cycle parking is available.

The LBCV August task is a week early to coincide with the Community Haystacks Weekend, on Sunday 31st July 2016.

The Rangers have arranged for LBCV Volunteers and other volunteer groups in the LVRPA to have a free scything workshop with scything expert Clive Leeke from 10:30. In the afternoon there will be a chance to practise scything or to join the site ranger for a leisurely paced walk exploring Leyton and Walthamstow Marshes.

Details of the whole weekend are below. Please note the Sunday morning scything workshop is not mentioned as it is just for volunteer groups. If you cannot make Sunday morning other workshops are available on Saturday at a cost of £15 per session.

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On Sunday 3 July 2016 Lea Bridge Conservation Volunteers will be doing a task to help manage the invasive species encroaching on the Water Vole Refuge. We will be removing seed heads and pulling plants from the South Marsh of Walthamstow Marshes.

Water Voles have a conservation status of protected in the UK under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981, and are classified as a Priority Species in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan.

Please wear sturdy footwear, wellingtons if possible and appropriate clothing (long trousers) for the work and weather. We will be working in long wet grass.

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On Sunday 5 June 2016 Lea Bridge Conservation Volunteers will be doing a task to help manage the invasive species at the Waterworks Nature Reserve, formally known as the Essex Filter Beds, on Lea Bridge Road.

We will be removing Goats Rue and possibly Himalayan Balsam, but on the site visit there was no sightings of it growing in the usual locations in the filter beds. So our work has been very successful in removing Himalayan Balsam from this site.

June 2015’s Invasive species pickings. Goats Rue on left Himalayan Balsam to the front.

Please wear sturdy footwear and appropriate clothing for the work and weather. We will be working in long grass.

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On Sunday 3rd April 2016 Lea Bridge Conservation Volunteers (LBCV) will be doing a practical conservation task in the Middlesex Filter Beds. The tasks will include bed wall clearance. Mosses and ferns present will be left and the removal will concentrate on the bramble and woodier species. This will help preserve the walls and also prevent the ferns and mosses being swamped by dominant species. There will also be an opportunity to plant Bed 1a with bat friendly flora.

Please wear sturdy footwear and appropriate clothing for the work and weather.

We will meet at 1 Connaught Close, Leyton, London E10 7QS from 9.30am and leave at 10am for a mini-bus trip to the task site. Volunteers are welcome to meet us on site, before the tools talk, please text 07757 766950, before 9am on Sunday, so we can provide enough tools and gloves. Indoor bicycle parking is available at Connaught Close.

As usual we will have post task refreshments in the Hare and Hounds on Lea Bridge Road.

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On Sunday 6th March 2016 Lea Bridge Conservation Volunteers (LBCV) will be doing scrub management and bed wall conservation in the Middlesex Filter Beds. The task will remove bramble and saplings that would take over open areas of the filter beds if not controlled. The cut scrub will be burnt onsite to prevent nutrient build up in this nature reserve. Scrub management will include a traditional bramble bash as well as cutting out small shrubs/bushes and trees with loppers and bowsaws. An additional task will be bed wall clearance. Mosses and ferns present will be left and the removal will concentrate on the bramble and woodier species. This will help preserve the walls and also prevent the ferns and mosses being swamped by dominant species.

Please wear sturdy footwear, preferably wellingtons and appropriate clothing for the work and weather.

As always no experience required

We can provide wellingtons at Connaught Close in the morning and you must return them to Connaught Close. So please arrive in plenty of time to select your pair. Please bring some lunch. LBCV will provide tools, training, gloves, tea, coffee and biscuits.

We will meet at 1 Connaught Close, Leyton, London E10 7QS from 9.30am and leave at 10am for a mini-bus trip to the task site. Volunteers are welcome to meet us on site, before the tools talk, please text 07757 766950, before 9am on Sunday, so we can provide enough tools and gloves. Indoor bicycle parking is available at Connaught Close. Anybody wanting to meet us on site should wait at the Rammey Marsh car park on Smeaton Road across from The Greyhound, from 10:30am onwards, we will be there as soon as possible depending traffic.

As usual we will have post task refreshments in the Hare and Hounds on Lea Bridge Road.

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On Sunday 7th February 2016 Lea Bridge Conservation Volunteers will be doing scrub management on Rammey Marsh. The task as part of LVRPA Higher Level Stewardship of Rammey Marsh is to help reduce the scrub on Rammey Marsh to below 25% coverage. The cut scrub will be used to build a hibernaculum as part of LVRPA participation in Frog Life’s London Dragon Finders project. Scrub management will include a traditional bramble bash as well as cutting out small shrubs/bushes and trees with loppers and bowsaws.

Please wear sturdy footwear, preferably wellingtons and appropriate clothing for the work and weather.

As always no experience required. We can provide wellingtons at Connaught Close in the morning and you must return them to Connaught Close. So please arrive in plenty of time to select your pair. Please bring some lunch. LBCV will provide tools, training, gloves, tea, coffee and biscuits.

We will meet at 1 Connaught Close, Leyton, London E10 7QS from 9.30am and leave at 10am for a mini-bus trip to the task site. Volunteers are welcome to meet us on site, before the tools talk, please text 07757 766950, before 9am on Sunday, so we can provide enough tools and gloves. Indoor bicycle parking is available at Connaught Close. Anybody wanting to meet us on site should wait at the Rammey Marsh car park on Smeaton Road across from The Greyhound, from 10:30am onwards, we will be there as soon as possible depending traffic.

As usual we will have post task refreshments in the Hare and Hounds on Lea Bridge Road.

Rammey Marsh is on the River Lea just inside the M25. We will be travelling there by mini-bus and there will also be a cycle ride to the task site, off-road along the River Lea tow path, approximately 8 miles. Rammey Marsh

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On Sunday 3rd January 2016 Lea Bridge Conservation Volunteers will be doing pond management in Horseshoe Thicket. The aim will be to arrest succession by clearing vegetation within the ponds and aiming to leave 30% open water.

As always no experience required. We can provide waders or wellingtons at Connaught Close in the morning and you must return them to Connaught Close. So please arrive in plenty of time to select your pair. Please bring some lunch. LBCV will provide tools, training, gloves, tea, coffee and biscuits.

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If you have an interest in nature or environmental conservationism, then volunteer with us on the first Sunday of any month doing practical conservation tasks in North East London’s largest open space, the Lea Valley Regional Park. We have done volunteering tasks from The East India Dock Basin on the Thames to Coppermill Fields in Waltham Abbey. These practical tasks range from woodland management, such as coppicing, the countryside skills of hedge laying and dead hedging to the removal of invasive vegetation with a traditional Bramble Bash.

Everybody is welcome to volunteer with LBCV doing hands-on practical conservation tasks in North East London, on the first Sunday of the month. No experience is needed; we provide the training and tools along with the tea, coffee and biscuits, bring your own packed lunch. Please wear suitable clothing for the weather and stout footwear. We will endeavour to do the planned task, no matter what the weather is doing; a task will only be changed if the weather makes it unsafe to do the planned work.

Please arrive from 9:30am onwards at the WaterWorks Centre Lammas Road, off Lea Bridge Road, Leyton, London E10 7QB, for a prompt 10am departure. The meeting place is the former golf centre across from the former Greyhound Public House. Bus numbers 48, 55 and 56 run along the Lea Bridge Road, alight by the Riding Centre. There is cycle parking available at Waterworks Centre. If you are going to be late, or wish to join us on site at the start of the task, please email or text 07757 766950 before 9am on the task day, so we can provide enough tools. Please provide a contact number so we can inform you if the task has to be changed at the last-minute.

If you have any queries please contact us by email, or call once the task reminder email has been sent out, usually a few days before the task weekend.

The monthly newsletter no longer contains local green events, training sessions, other groups’ volunteer work days but is now a reminder of the task sent closer to the date, please sign up for the monthly LBCV task reminder, over on the left.